This study finds that the Swedish Government has a process for purchasing financial advisory services that is more transaction-oriented than the corresponding process at a Swedish private equity firm. The conclusion is supported by previous research comparing public and private sector purchasing processes. However, the differences between the two purchasing processes are not as significant as one might believe given the fact that the Government, unlike the private equity firm, has to operate under the Public Procurement Act (LOU). The tendency of the Swedish Government to apply a more relationoriented purchasing approach than expected is most likely driven by the fact that this represents the established professional norm for purchasing of professional services in the private sector. As LOU and the professional norm impose contradictory influences on the Swedish Government?s purchasing of financial advisory services, the final outcome depends on which of the two forces that dominate..

Efter att ha studerat och författat en teoretisk grund kring ?Private Equity ? En portföljbolagsstudie? som första delen av två inom en 20-poängsuppsats skrivs denna magisteruppsats som en påbyggnad där en empirisk studie, analys och slutsats genomförs.Private equity-investeringar blir en allt vanligare form för kapitalanskaffning hos entreprenörer och företag. Denna form av investeringar sker i onoterade företag där investeraren håller ett aktivt och tidsbegränsat ägarengagemang. Denna uppsats skrivs på uppdrag av Svenska Riskkapitalföreningen, och syftet är att studera riskkapitalinvesteringar med avseende på hur portföljbolagen utvecklas beträffande tillväxt i sysselsättning och omsättning, efter det att ett private equity-bolag blivit delägare. Undersökningen bygger på kvantitativt insamlande av data där analysen grundats på enkäter och bokslutsdata.Två hypoteser har ställts upp och besvarats.

?No one leaves behind? är en uppsats som diskuterar vilka berättarstrukturer och ideologier som kan urskiljas i de amerikanska krigsfilmerna Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), We Were Soldiers (2001) och Saving Private Ryan (1998), med hjälp av teoretiska metoder från strukturalismen och teoretikern John Fiske. Dessutom behandlas även begreppet nationell identitet för att undersöka om man kan se någon tendens till nationella identiteter i de amerikanska krigsfilmerna. Slutsatsen är att filmerna har en gemensam berättarstruktur och gemensamma teman som är viktiga för de ideologiska tankar och värderingar som kan urskiljas i filmerna. Teman såsom ära, mod och heder, det manliga förhållandet som i uppsatsen benämns brödraskap, och dessutom temat No one leaves behind vilket är mycket centralt i en del av filmerna. Ingen av soldaterna i filmerna skall lämnas kvar i en krigszon, levande eller död..

The aim of this thesis is to accomplish an understanding on how librarians experience their professional role at private companies. The study is based on qualitative interviews with persons who have a degree in Library and Information science, but does not work as an ordinary librarian. To answer why the respondents work at private companies, this thesis dwells on how the education in library and information science prepares their students to face an alternative career; why the respondents wants to work at private firms instead of a library; if the salary is a key factor in order to choose a career; if the respondents think the companies appreciate their qualifications, and finally, if the respondents think they intrude on other professions' territory? Working at a private company, with a degree in library- and information science, is not, according to the respondents, easy. Although appreciated by their knowledge in the field of information, the interviewees think that the title librarian is hard to cope with.

The primary aim of the current study was to gain increased knowledge about drivers' risk experiences. The study was based on questionnaires answered by 30 private drivers and 30 bus drivers, with 50% men and 50% woman in each group. The study revealed no differences, either between men and women drivers with regard to their experience of risk, or between the groups of private and bus drivers. Gambling is common within the private drivers group. Mistakes are common in all groups.

This thesis seeks to explain the effect of private equity ownership on the amount of invest- ments made in a company. We use three capital expenditure based key ratios to determine if there is a tendency for private equity owned firms to invest more or less than comparable companies. Our dataset involve 27 Swedish buyout companies that were sold by a private equity fund between 2001 and 2009. Each buyout is assigned a peer group of two firms in similar size and in the same industry. Firstly, we compare the key ratios to determine potential differences in the level of investment.

The aim of this thesis is to study the private owner structure in the Swedish forestry. This will be done with both a investigation of forest owners in Småland the year 2000 and 2001 and also a statistic research for the private forest owners in Sweden right now and over the years. In Sweden more than half of the total forest area is owned by private forest owner, witch is approximately 22 600 000 ha. Private forestry includes the owner categories private person, ordinary partnership and the estate of deceased persons. The main part of the private forestry is to be found in Norrland but also in the rest of Sweden private forestry constitute a large part of the forestry area.

Sekretessbelagd.

This thesis aims at investigating the two municipality?s Gislaved and Ljungby. Where the aim is to see if there is any connections, between the type and the degree of public-private partnerships, and the municipalities obtained environment performance. In this essay the starting point is that the environmental performance in the chosen municipalities is good.Interviews among local politicians and representatives for the municipalities plastic industries, has functioned as a way to test the hypothesis. Gislaved and Ljungby have thereafter been compared, in order to see if there is any similarity in the sort and the degree of public-private partnerships, and how that will affect the environmental performance. The overall questions in this essay are:How can the cooperation among the chosen municipalities and the      local business life be described? What kind of Public-private partnership      exists in the selected municipalities?Is there any difference between the municipalities, referring to      the degree of cooperation between the municipalities and the local      business life? Does the degree of cooperation affect the progress on the environmental      performance? The end result shows that the local business life doesn?t have any impact on the environmental performance.

pcSKOG-gård is a computerised manager plan for private forest owners, developed by the pcSKOG AB. The program is based on forest stand data, joined with a map of the forest and GIS-applications. The purpose is to offer a program for private forest owners managing the forest and with the possibility of updating the actual status of the forest. The company pcSKOG AB is the leading producer of programs for forest management and has developed the program since 1997. The program is currently the most common program used by private forest owners in Sweden. The aim of this thesis, leading to MSc in forestry, is to investigate the purpose of the private forest owners when purchasing the pcSKOG-gård. The thesis also studies how private forest owners use the program, what they use it for and how the private forest owners state that the program has achieved to fulfil their expectations. The thesis is also a market research concerning the knowledge and attitudes the private forest owners have about the program and associated services. The study material has been collected during two phases.

This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

The need of raw material does of course fluctuate but the long term view is an increasing demand due to the growing consumption of sawn timber products, pulp, paper and lately also biomass. This has led to a keener competition for wood. At the same time there is an ongoing structural change of a significant part in the Swedish wood supply market, the private forest owners. In 1992, 22 % of Sweden´s 335 000 private forest owner lived apart from their forest. In 2007 this figure had risen to 36 %.

As most developed countries Norway has an ageing population meaning that the number of pensioners is predicted to grow rapidly over the coming years. As a consequence the Norwegian pension system will not be able to provide for these future pensioners. Meanwhile, a rising number of early retirees and disability pension claimants is diminishing the real retirement age. Also the individual pension amount is growing while the pension system itself reaches maturity. In short, major reforms are needed in the Norwegian pension system.

Private equity bolag som skapar värde genom leveraged buyout har under de senaste åren fått ökad konkurrens inom den process vilken syftar till att finna attraktiva investeringar som kan generera avkastning enligt uppsatta avkastningskrav. Processen som karaktäriseras av informationsasymmetri och kallas för deal sourcing har därmed blivit ett svårare moment för dagens private equity bolag. Denna empiriska fallstudie undersöker hur svenska private equity bolag inom kategorin leveraged buyout i praktiken arbetar med deal sourcing och vilka drivkrafter som processen utformas efter i syfte att finna potentiella investeringar. Detta undersöks i ljuset av den akademiska forskning som tidigare gjorts på området. Studien utgår ifrån tio intervjuer med företagsrepresentanter vilka har insyn i och är delaktiga i processen med att finna bolag.

This study has been carried out in the spring of 2014 on behalf of PQR Consult AB in Stockholm. The aim of the study has been to analyse the energy usage of the building Skarpövägen 1 in order to explore the possibilites of saving energy by using appropriate equipment. These possible solutions have been simulated by using the programe IDA Indoor Climate and Energy, combined with a life cycle cost analysis. The laundry building, Skarövägen 23, has also been analysed due to its high amount of energy usage. The result of the energy analysis showed that the energy usage was much higher than the energy declaration.